Discovery: LP

In which two American indie-rock gentlemen (Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles) abandon guitars and try to prove their R&B chops over 30 ear-tearing minutes of handclaps, high-hats and inexpert synths. Where Vampire Weekend's aesthetic posturing ("Upper West Side Soweto" indeed!) somehow hits on something, Discovery's similarly inauthentic shtick just hits the wall. Their what-does-this-button-do approach lands on a few interesting noises, but Miles's gauchely auto-tuned cooing derails any fleeting appeal. The best can be said about the cover of I Want You Back is that it's accidentally topical; the worst is unprintable. The biggest question is what possessed Amber Deradoorian of the Dirty Projectors to lend vocals on one track. Her band steal from R&B with no end of invention and ingenuity on their outstanding new album; Discovery do so with a striking lack of either.